Students

Former Student Lan Nguyen

Former Sociology student Lan Nguyen has developed the web site for the Nebraska Innocence Project, an organization which seeks to free incarcerated individuals who have been wrongly convicted. Dr. Rebecca Murray is the president of the organization, and has employed Lan's expertise in developing this site. You can see the fruits of his labor shortly, at the following url: www.nebraskaip.org.

Shannon Keating

Senior Shannon Keating is currently working with Dr. Rebecca Murray on a project which is seeking to develop more appropriate research methodology in measuring the impact of urban structures on violence. This project focuses on two questions: 1) What makes establishments that serve liquor a "bar" ? and 2) What social mechanisms encourage or discourage management in these facilities to report violent interactions to the police? Shannon is working on the development of a questionnaire for managers and owners of liquor-serving establishments, and they hope to employ UNO graduate students to help with the "atmosphere assessment" of a random sample of 30 liquor-serving establishments in Omaha.

Former Student Kristin Czerminger

Former Anthropology student Kristin Czerminger is currently working with Dr. Rebecca Murray, along with Bob Blair, the chair of the Urban Studies Program at UNO, on a project involving neighborhood associations and citizen empowerment. They have employed several community members in Omaha for this project, including the office of City Planning and neighborhood groups such as Omaha By Design. They hope to determine whether use of empowerment techniques such as active neighborhood associations affect citizen willingness to employ formal sanctions such as city complaints or calls for law enforcement.

Elizabeth Gluvna

Elizabeth Gluvna is currently doing bibliographic research on anthropological approaches to understanding and eliminating AIDS. She is conducting electronic searches for suitable works and updating an on-line comprehensive bibliography for the Aids and Anthropology Research Group.She began this work in the fall of 2007 and will continue the research in the spring semester of 2008.

Jillian Liesmeier

Jillian Liesmeier is currently working as Fr. Bucko’s research assistant as he writes an introduction and annotates the text for the republication of “Conquering the Mighty Sioux” by William J. Bordeaux. Published in 1929 through his own efforts, the work is an important document of Lakota history as well as the contemporary views of the author who was a mixed ancestry Lakota and French cultural expert and Lakota speaker. Jillian will do an exhaustive search for other of Mr. Bordeaux’s writings, particularly in the Argus Leader. She will also assist with bibliographic research, cross-checking a time line to establish a historic context for the work, and citation checking for both the introduction of the book and the annotation of the text. She will begin this work in the spring semester of 2008.